Undesirable People

Undesirable People EP

Dear readers, I apologise for going AWOL on you the past two weeks or so. As it happened, I had to commit to finishing a uni project on different philosophers' analysis of love - mere days after wrecking my own relationship through almost two years. God it seems, is not without a somewhat cruel sense of humor. Anyway, here's an effort to get back to writing, and my first subject is the "Undesirable People EP", which was released back in September by a young American quintet of the same name.

Right out of the gates, opener "The Fall Down" lets us all know that a) UP have either been listening to Transit and Man Overboard, or possibly just the same bands those are inspired by, and b) they intend to take that kind of pop-punk and spice it up with truly huge gang choirs. "Resting As Ruins" continues in exactly the same vein, sounding maybe slightly more polished than the bands referenced, while providing an instantly catchy chorus. The instrumentation sounds thick and fairly organic, mostly due to guitar's that are not afraid to be rough and a bass that's not afraid to, well, be there.

Listening to the third track, "Olegna Vaughn, The Troubadour", especially the vocals in the verse should remind listeners of Transit's Joe Boynton, while they get a bit sharper in the verse, drawing my attention more in the direction of the Swedish pop-punk bands of recent years, such as Kid Down and Chemical Vocation. By the time "Women Be Shoppin'" comes around, it's become pretty clear to me, that these guys are intent on proving something with this disc, and their way to go about it is rather straightforward and rather noisy. Compared to my experience with the new Transit record for instance, there's less beating around the bush here, and more playing with all instruments loudly audible while singing full power.

This upbeat loudness makes sense for a band that's at an earlier point in their career, and I'm sure some will actually find it a positive thing, but personally I find myself wishing for more restrained moments, like the verses of "Olegna Vaughn" and "From The Left". "Resting In Ruins" proves that the band knows how to pen a catchy tune, but the other songs are a bit more of the up-and-down kind of ride that you'd expect from a band just starting out. The room for compositional improvement and maturation aside however, I don't see a lot here to make Undesirable People a band not worth getting into, especially not if you enjoy any of the bands I've thus far compared them to. Keep it coming lads.